


Apple Bunnies

by Andramion



Series: A Week's Worth of Yachi Pairs [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, poor lev caught a cold in the middle of summer, yachi playing nurse and having too much fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-27 00:44:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5027128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andramion/pseuds/Andramion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lev catches a cold in the middle of summer, during training camp, and since Nekoma doesn't have any managers, Yachi offers to help take care of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apple Bunnies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bibbidibobbididette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibbidibobbididette/gifts).



Hitoka listens to the coughing in the other room as she slowly cuts the apple in front of her in half. It sounds painful, dry, and it makes her want to carry a glass of water inside immediately.

It’s incredible, really, that someone somehow managed to catch a cold during a training camp in the middle of summer.

There’s a groan drifting through the door to the classroom lined with futons, and Hitoka pauses her cutting work.

“I’ll be right there, promise! There should be a bottle of water next to your backpack!”

She picks her knife back up again and starts working faster, wanting to check up on him soon. It shouldn't be this much fun, taking care of someone else, and Hitoka feels bad about enjoying it when someone is actually sick, but Haiba-kun makes for a more entertaining patient than Hitoka had thought he'd be.

Minutes later, Hitoka carefully slides the door to the classroom open with her foot, even though she knows it's rude, but she's carrying a plate with one hand and the other's holding onto a cup of now lukewarm tea. Her bad manners will have to be forgiven. Plus, she doesn't think that Haiba-kun will mind, not really, when he's having trouble just sitting up to greet her.

"Yachi-san," he calls, his voice a little raspy and Hitoka puts everything down on one of the desks that have been pushed aside to make space for everyone to fit into the room.

"Hold on," she tells him, pulling a few bags behind Haiba's back and grabbing some pillows off of random beds, hoping whoever they belong to won't mind Haiba-kun using them for a bit.

"Thank you," he mutters when he sits back, and Hitoka hands him the cup of tea.

"It's no problem." She means it, she realises when she says it, even though she'd only just before been wishing she could help out in the gymnasium, make sure her team has everything it needs. She wants to become a proper manager, wants to help out as much as she can and if she's stuck here by the classrooms-turned-sleeping-halls she can't do that.

But still, when she realised that Nekoma didn't have a manager, or anyone else to look after Haiba-kun while he was in bed with a light fever, she'd volunteered to stay with him. Though she knows it couldn't have been helped, Hitoka has spent years being home alone whenever she was sick, only feeling a bit better after her mother came home from work. She knows it's nicer to have someone else around.

Haiba-kun sips the tea lightly; his bangs fall into his face as he leans forward and presses the rim of the cup just under his bottom lip. He closes his eyes and for a moment his whole face relaxes and Hitoka quickly averts her eyes by turning around and grabbing the plate too.

"I got you some apples too. Vitamins are important when you've caught a cold and they should help you reco-"

"OH! BUNNIES!"

Hitoka falls silent over Haiba-kun's excited exclamation and looks down at the plate in her hands. She'd chopped the apples into parts, cutting the skin of each one into bunny ears out of habit. She shouldn't have done that, she really shouldn't have done that. Of course a guy wouldn't like that, of course a tall, _tall, TALL_ guy like Haiba-kun would much rather prefer to simply have a normal apple or.. do boys not eat fruit? She tries to remember what kind of snacks her classmates bring to school, but the most she can conjure is a memory of Hinata and Kageyama-kun fighting over whether it's actually possible to slip on a random banana peel.

“I'm sorry!" she tells him, putting one of her hands on the floor so she can get up again and she wants to add "I'll get you a new one", but Haiba-kun is already reaching out to grab a few slices and look them over.

"I love apple bunnies!" he tells her, his expression bright and cheerful even if his eyes are watery and his nose red. As she watches him munch on slice after slice, Hitoka feels a smile settle on her face. He's looking at every bit of apple before biting into it, humming and nodding when he finds the ears are done well enough and his expression is one of such childlike joy, Hitoka can't help but feel a bit lighter too.

"You know," he says in between sips of his tea as he looks at another bunny, "my dad used to do this for me and my little sister whenever he was home, back when we were little. He wasn't around much because of work, and mum never learnt to do it because well, it's not something they do in Russia I guess. So it was a special treat when dad got back early."

He ends his story with stuffing another piece of apple into his mouth and looks at her as he chews. Hitoka doesn't miss the way he's eyeing her hands wringing together and she instantly stops doing it.

"My mother," she says, feeling like she should share a little too, feeling like she can, "she works a lot too, so when I was little I was always at day care. But on Sunday we'd have the whole day together and we'd have a picnic just outside on the grass across the road from our apartment if the weather was nice. And mum would always bring apple bunnies."

When she looks up again, she finds Haiba-kun's eyes trained on her face and she leans back immediately, a flush spreading to her face. "Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"Do you not have a dad?"

For a moment, Hitoka can't do anything but blink at him, at the blunt question and the lack of polite indifference people usually show practical strangers. He reminds her of Hinata a bit, she thinks for the so-many-th time since that morning, though he's even more direct than Hinata. It's a little shocking.

But it's also kind of refreshing.

"I don't," she tells him, and for the first time in a long time, she feels comfortable talking without looking away. Haiba-kun didn't seem weirded-out when he asked her, just... curious. "It's been just mum and me for as long as I can remember, and it's worked just fine. If mum can work so hard to take care of both of us, I can take care of myself too. That's the least I can do."

There's another silence after she finishes talking, but it's filled with the different expressions crossing Haiba-kun's face. It's interesting, seeing his emotions so clear on his face as it shifts from looking like he's listening intently, to considering, a little sad, and then he's beaming at her.

"You're really amazing, you know, Yachi-san!"

As soon as the praise leaves his mouth, Hitoka is spluttering, but Haiba-kun gives her no time to recover before he continues.

"You're so amazing and you can cook and Hinata says you're clever too and you can make apple bunnies and you're really tiny and really cute and you can cook and you're a manager for Karasuno so you help out there too and you're just great! That's amazing!"

Briefly, Hitoka wonders over the amount of 'amazing's Haiba-kun's used in those few sentences, but then his words sink in and she can feel her cheeks burning even harder.

"P-please, Haiba-kun, I'm just..."

"Just Lev works, and no, no, you really are! I've seen you hard at work during the whole camp so far and you're pretty and you smell nice and I really like that about you." For a second, Haiba-kun looks down at his cup as he wraps both his hands around it. "I really like you," he then tells her, grinning at her as she just looks at him with her jaw slack and her face glowing hot.

"H-haiba-kun," she starts, realising she needs to say _something_ , but she's called his name before she even knows how to reply. All she can think about is how Haiba-kun has a fever, how he's probably not thinking straight, how he's just not aware of what he's actually saying, that he-

"AH!!!" Haiba-kun slaps his own forehead and Hitoka jumps at the loud smack that sounds in the room, letting out a high-pitched squeak. "I totally just confessed to you! I didn't mean to! Not yet!"

"Not... yet," Hitoka repeats after him, shocked when she realises that this is something he's thought about, at least a little, before. Somehow, she manages to raise her gaze back up to his face and she almost can't believe how not-embarrassed Haiba-kun looks.

"I..." she starts again, still not sure what to say, but while searching for words, her phone vibrates in the pocket of her skirt and she suddenly knows.

"If you want... we could.. exchange email addresses," she offers and she watches Haiba-kun's green eyes grow a little bit bigger in surprise. "and start there."

"I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend!" Finally, Haiba-kun has the grace to look a little shy too and he looks up at her through his bangs. Hitoka ignores the urge to brush his hair aside. "But I guess this is a good way to start."

Hitoka finds herself excited to agree with him.


End file.
